Lucky Luiz escapes justice from wonky-eyed Wirrall whistleblower: Newcastle 0-3 Chelsea
Posted on December 4th, 2011 | 29 Comments |
Date: Saturday 3rd Dec, 2011.
Kick-off: 12.45pm.
Referee: Mike Dean.
Newcastle made just one change to the side that drew 1-1 at Old Trafford last weekend, with the suspended Jonas Gutierrez replaced by Peter Lovenkrands. For the 13th time this season, Newcastle United were able to field the same defence that has conceded the joint lowest total of goals so far in the Premier League (12).
Frank Lampard returned to the Chelsea midfield, in place of Raul Meireles, who dropped to the bench. This was the Blues only change, with striker Fernando Torres again having to settle for a place on the bench. Danger man Sturridge was chosen to play wide right with Drogba and Mata completing the front three.
The players took to the field in front of a full house at SJP and joined in with the crowd of 52,305 for a rousing minute of applause for Gary Speed. Newcastle coach John Carver was clearly upset as he had worked with Gary as recently as last season when they were at Sheffield United together. Incidentally Speed scored his first goal for Newcastle in this corresponding fixture in 1998 which ended in a 3-1 defeat of Chelsea.
Both teams started brightly, exchanging some early possession but before the fans had time to settle in their seats. Cabaye pushed a lovely through ball towards Ba in a central position, who was able to reach the ball before Luiz and just as he turned towards goal, the defender tangled with the forward, bringing him down just a yard outside the box. No penalty but as the last man he surely had to go, but in his wisdom, referee Mike Dean gave him a yellow card instead. As strong a case for sending off as you will ever see and a huge let off for the Blues. Ryan Taylor took the resulting free kick but slammed it into the wall. It was a bizarre decision from the wonky-eyed Wirral whistleblower because it either wasn’t a foul at all or it was a red card and a yellow card just wasn’t an option.
Minutes later there was more dubious defending from Luiz as he attempted to turn and was robbed by Ba, but Terry got back to recover the situation. Chelsea were riding their luck as Newcastle pressed for an early goal.
On the 11th minute Newcastle fans began to sing Gary Speed’s name as a mark of respect for our former No. 11.
Although Chelsea were sloppy at the back they were threatening whenever Sturridge got the ball on the right and ran at the Newcastle defence in particular at Ryan Taylor.. Poor. Taylor was seeing little of the ball and had no Jonas to help him out either. Surely Lovenkrands selection on the left was a Pardew “senior moment”?
In the 12th minute, on one of his darting runs, Daniel Sturridge burst into the penalty area and is clipped, surprisingly by Cabaye, as Raylor was elsewhere. So up stepped Lampard to take the penalty only for Tim Krul (Superkeeper) to deny him with a great save down low to his left which he pushed onto the post. Admittedly it wasn’t the greatest penalty ever taken but Tim did well for a tall man to get down low so quickly.
Minutes later the impressive Sturridge again cuts inside and fires a 20-yard shot just wide of Krul’s post, and the danger signs are there for all to see. During a period of sustained pressure from Chelsea, Sturridge hit a post and had two shots saved by Krul along with another from Mata.
However in the 23rd minute Newcastle came back with a great chance to take the lead. This was when Peter Lovenkrands out on the left made space for a cross, and when it arrived in the middle, Demba Ba somehow managed to flick the ball towards gaol from only yards out. Unfortunately Cech, rather like Krul’s save at Old Trafford last week, just managed to tip the shot over as it headed straight for him. A couple of feet either side and we’d be one up.
Three minutes later the second piece of bad luck struck the Toon as Captain Colocinni was forced to retire from the match with what appeared to be a thigh injury. As they say, bad luck often comes in three’s and sure enough when Perch was brought on as a straight replacement for the Argentine defender, it was then we all knew it just wasn’t going to be our day!
Shortly afterwards Mata managed to get past Simpson on the left and produced a lovely inswinging centre which Drogba looked favourite to knock into the net, but luckily for us he hesitated and Ryan Taylor managed to sweep the ball almost off Drogba’s toes for a corner.
Then it was United’s turn to hit the woodwork, as Demba Ba got above David Luiz to head Danny Guthrie’s cross onto the post but then John Terry smacked the loose ball right into Luiz and can only watch as it floats up and inches wide. That would have rivalled the Mancs goal at Old Trafford last week which eventually hit Hernadez before rolling over the line. Some go your way and some dont…
Then there was another blow for the Toon as Ivanovic swung over an innocuous ball from the right wing, which went out for a throw in over on the other side of the pitch near the goal line. Obertan went to take the throw in but was told by the referee that the ball was Chelsea’s. A quick throw by Ashley Cole found Juan Mata who eluded the slower Cabaye and the slippery Spaniard then lofted over a lovely little cross for Didier Drogba to power in a header at the near post beating Perch to the ball .
37th minute Newcastle 0 – Chelsea 1.
At that point Newcastle looked ragged in defence and confidence seemed to be draining away from the players. Two minutes later Frank Lampard played one lovely pass which cut open what was left of the Newcastle defence and Daniel Sturridge was in on goal. Once again though his low shot was well saved by Tim Krul who has to be the best keeper in the Premier League on current form?
The half ended with both teams showing their attacking flair, but Newcastle had to be concerned at the way the defence gave Sturridge the freedom of the park.
HALF-TIME: Newcastle 0-1 Chelsea.
The second half did not start the way we hoped as HBA was substituted at half time, replaced by the enigmatic Shola Ameobi. Admittedly HBA wasn’t getting much of the ball, but surely Pardew has to think about where he plays him in future as this No 10 role just doesn’t seem to do it for him!
First chance of the second half went to Chelsea as a Cole cross eluded Danny Simpson and was chested down at the back post by Didier Drogba, but the striker thrashed his shot wildly wide from no more than five yards out. But then came a let off for the Blues as Didier Drogba inadvertently headed the ball against his own crossbar it hits the underside but Chelsea managed to get it clear to Sturridge who raced down the right before finding Ramires, but the midfielder was denied by yet another fine save from Tim Krul. Real end to end stuff.
On the hour mark, Lampard was taken off and subbed with Raul Meireles, which suggested that AVB was happy to take the 1-0. Just afterwards an excellent and brave piece of defending from Ashley Cole denied Newcastle a decent chance. Demba Ba swivelled to try and volley a loose ball but Cole threw himself in the way and nicked the ball.
On 70 minutes with the game still too close to call, Pardew replaced the relatively ineffective Lovenkrands with Sammy Ameobi. Cue Crowd “There’s only two Ameobi’s!”
Sammy got into the action pretty quickly, and before long was denied a first Premier League goal by John Terry on the line as Petr Cech could only tip a cross away under pressure from Demba Ba and Sammy saw his well struck volley cleared by the captain.
The Newcastle defence looked as though they were tiring and were not helped any by the introduction of Torres with ten minutes left in the game. However a moment of brilliance almost saw Newcastle draw level when Shola Ameobi (yes that’s right brilliance and Ameobi used in the same sentence) managed to control a hopeful ball from Danny Simpson. He then turned his man and thumped a rising 20 yard effort which beat Cech but smacked against the crossbar.
If Newcastle were unlucky, Sturridge should have killed the contest six minutes from the end when Raul Meireles and Salomon Kalou left him with only Krul to beat. Once again the goalkeeper stood up to him and saved yet again. It was another Tim Krul MOTM performance from a Newcastle point of view. Sadly though it was all to no avail as two minutes later, Fernando Torres burst through a vacant Newcastle defence. While the chance looked to have gone when he cut inside, he had the presence of mind to release the ball to Salomon Kalou, whose shot was partially saved by Krul. However the Dutchman couldn’t prevent the ball from spinning agonisingly away from him and past Ryan Taylor into the back of the net.
88 minute Newcastle 0 – Chelsea 2.
Another Sturridge chance went wide before he finally got himself on the scoresheet as the Newcastle backline was stretched once again, allowing Sturridge to cut in from the right before drilling in a low shot from almost the central point. Arguably Sturridge deserved his goal for all his efforts, however he wont come up against too many keepers in TK’s class during the rest of this season.
91st minute Newcastle 0 – Chelsea 3.
There was just enough time for Raylor and John Terry to pick up yellow cards before the final whistle stopped the misery. That third goal was just the final nail in NUFC’s coffin because it made the final scoreline look as though we’d been soundly beaten, which was far from the truth.
The stats tell another story.
Possession: Newcastle United 49% – 51% Chelsea.
Attempts on target: Newcastle United 9 – Chelsea 13.
Shots off target: Newcastle United 7 – Chelsea 8.
More worrying perhaps than the scoreline is the fact that we lost both central defenders to injury. Steven Taylor has ruptured his achilles while Coloccini has picked up a thigh injury, meaning both are major doubts for next weekend’s trip to Norwich.
Could it get much worse?
Newcastle United (4-4-1-1): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini (James Perch 28), Ryan Taylor, Peter Lovenkrands (Sammy Ameobi 71), Danny Guthrie, Yohan Cabaye, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa (Shola Ameobi (half time), Demba Ba.
Subs: Steve Harper, Davide Santon, James Perch, Dan Gosling, Leon Best, Shola Ameobi, Sammy Ameobi.
Chelsea (4-3-3): Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Davud Luiz, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Ranbo Ramires, Oriol Romeu, Frank Lampard (Raul Meireles 61), Daniel Sturridge, Didier Drogba (Fernando Torres 79), Juan Mata (Salomon Kalou 74).
Subs: Ross Turnbull (G), Fernando Torres, Florent Malouda, Raul Meireles, Bosingwa, Solomon Kalou, Plastic Bertrand.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
Goals: Didier Drogba (38), Solomon Kalou (89), Daniel Sturridge (90+3)).
Yellow cards: daniel Sturridge (85), Danny Simpson (87), Ryan Taylor (90+4), John Terry (90+4).
Red Cards: None.
Extended match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: AndyMac
AndyMac has written 13 articles on this blog.
a yellow card was an “option”. if dean felt that ba didn’t have the ball under control or it wouldn’t have resulted in a clear goalscoring opportunity then it would merely be a yellow. you could certainly argue both those points & dean in general actually had an excellent game. which is unlike him.
you could add in that ba was fractionally offside when the ball was played & that he blatantly dived as well…something he did repeatedly throughout the match…& justice was pretty much done.